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Going it alone

(235 Posts)
CariGransnet (GNHQ) Thu 09-May-13 07:50:39

When Sally Curtis lost her husband unexpectedly her life was turned upside down. In her guest blog Going it alone she shares what she's learned from the last year - and offers suggestions to anyone who isn't quite sure what to say or do to help.

Steeple Wed 06-Nov-13 20:20:09

Lovely to see so many responses. I am being told get out and meet people but that is difficult. Do I see what clubs are available? I have never joined
Social place without my husband. I was playing short mat bowls but seems not many clubs near me. It is very early days so perhaps I will find an
Outlet.

Thank you all

nightowl Wed 06-Nov-13 20:17:50

This forum is full of sadness this week. My condolences to all of you who have suffered bereavement. I hope you will find some comfort here flowers

Faye Wed 06-Nov-13 19:34:37

I am sorry to hear your sad news Steeple. my condolences. flowers

hummingbird Wed 06-Nov-13 16:06:39

Honestly, Sewsilver, you're so right! I seem to have heard nothing but awful news this week. It never rains.... flowers

Sewsilver Wed 06-Nov-13 13:44:19

Thank you for that Hummingbird. A timely post as for some reason this has been the worst week of grief.It is hard sometimes to remember that these feelings of loss and sadness will not go on for ever.

whenim64 Wed 06-Nov-13 13:14:21

Thank you 'Hummingbird*

Grannylin Wed 06-Nov-13 13:11:19

I second that hummingbird. For all grans feeling particularly raw todayflowers

hummingbird Wed 06-Nov-13 13:05:03

I love this message from Samuel Beckett to Alan Schneider - it sums up perfectly what I think about coping with bereavement:

'I know your sorrow and I know that for the likes of us there is no ease for the heart to be had from words of reason and that in the very assurance of sorrow's fading, there is more sorrow. So I offer you only my deeply affectionate and compassionate thoughts and wish for you only that the strange thing may never fail you, whatever it is, that gives us the strength to live on with our wounds.'

For all bereaved gransnetters, flowers

Aka Wed 06-Nov-13 12:13:18

I don't know what time does but it doesn't take the pain away. Perhaps it makes it more manageable. It becomes part of you and if someone offered to take it away, you wouldn't want them to because the pain is the link to the one you've lost.

(((((hugs))))

Tegan Wed 06-Nov-13 12:11:25

You'll get lots of support on here, Steeple flowers

Galen Wed 06-Nov-13 12:11:17

Having lost mine 10 years ago, I can assure you it will get better. You get used to the loss eventually

Steeple Wed 06-Nov-13 12:01:43

I have just lost my husband after six weeks in Intensive care following an
Operation. I am finding it impossible to believe he will not walk in the room.
After 58 years marriage I am lost and desolate. Can anyone tell me it will
Get better?

Sp.

Lona Thu 24-Oct-13 19:46:55

Lindy Good for you for grieving in such a positive way, and getting on with life as well as you can at the moment. flowers

Lindylooby Thu 24-Oct-13 17:31:49

Hi Sprindrift and everyone else, 6 months into widowhood, yes I am getting better with coping and living this new life......most of the time, but it is still the little things that catch me out. Trying to put a brave face on for the dc and dgc does get hard sometimes, where would I be without the friends I can let my feelings really show, in a really bad place I think.
Our wedding anniversary coming up and a first solo flight to Holland to see eldest dd and gc next week then c..... yuk can't bear to think about that day at the moment, but it is only 1 day or so I keep telling myself.
Hope you are all doing ok, let us all know that here we can catch up every so often, and know that we are not the only ones going through this.
A flowers and a brew for all of us.

Spindrift Thu 24-Oct-13 11:16:16

Just a note to everyone, hope you are all well & coming to terms with your situation, I know I am dealing better now with things
wine & flowers for you all xx

henetha Wed 14-Aug-13 11:09:42

Heaps of good wishes to you, Lindy. So sorry for your loss. Don't feel guilty though, it cannot be your fault in any way. Here is wishing you much peace and acceptance, and finding happiness in the future.

Gagagran Wed 14-Aug-13 07:52:37

What a brave post Lindy - well done you for such positive thinking. My eldest sister lost her husband after only five years of marriage and she said that the pain eases but you have a part of you that's always numb. I hope that is not so for you and that you gradually get stronger and more able to cope. I am very impressed by your positivity. flowerssunshine

Nonu Wed 14-Aug-13 07:49:21

A big warm hug to you Lindy.

Lindylooby Wed 14-Aug-13 07:17:32

Morning everyone! Well here I am 4 months into this new life that death forced me to enter, just thought I would put down in wring where I feel I am.
Since Mike died my family and friends have been amazing and have made sure I am kept busy, but last week I suddenly felt I was worrying too much about everyone else and I needed to be at home on my own for a week, (just had Jess our beagle for company). I told everyone that I was fine but needed to grieve for Mike on my own, to just do as I felt. They all understood, Lthough my youngest daughter has told me this week she was worried I might have done something silly! I didn't do much last week, I chatted to Mike's ashes, shouted at the photos and cried at the dvds. But, I do feel a lot better, I feel Mike all around me, I have booked to see the doctor next week to discuss my 'guilt' feelings....should I have noticed something earlier, should we not have blamed silly little signs on his Parkinson's disease. I feel it will be another step towards closure. I have accepted life will never be the same. But have started making plans to give me (and the family) little goals. So will be going to Dorset with friends in September, off to the Netherlands in November to see eldest daughter and family. We have booked a very large 'cottage' for next August for chikdren grandchildren and I to have a family holiday......little steps but I know Mike would be pleased.
The worst thing about losinga loved one is that your life also ends, and this new slightly foreign and initially false life begins. I am lucky, I have a wonderful network around me, but my heart goes out to those you find themselves lonely as well as alone. My love and hugs to all of you who are at any stage of the losing or lost stage in life. I wish you could learn about this awful feeling before it happens as it just is the most difficult feeling.

Spindrift Tue 13-Aug-13 10:34:19

people have often asked me have I gone through the angry stage, I haven't, because I knew my OH so well this is the way he would have wanted to go, he used to say I don't want to live until I am old, it used to make me cross, but now I understand what he meant, he didn't want to live & have an old persons ailments, he didn't cope well at all with being ill, he was a doer, never stopped, promised me when he retired he would relax more & do less, did he? did he heck smile he did even more, he enjoyed working, he was always wanting to mow the lawns (garden tractor) it was all I could do to stop him or we would have had nothing but soil. If he had recovered & couldn't do that he would have been so miserable & would have died very soon anyway feeling totally miserable, so he got his way & for that I am grateful not angry, he died going to help a neighbour, a very cold rough night, he went out from a warm house into it & 3 blood clots hit his heart simultaneously, we didn't even know about the clots, he hadn't been ill at all, just a bit short of breath at times. flowers for you all

henetha Tue 13-Aug-13 10:19:21

Ending up alone is never easy and I feel great sympathy to those of you whose husband/partner have died. To lose a beloved one after many happy years together must be completely heart-breaking.
I can't help wondering which is worse, - if your partner dies or if they leave you for another woman/man?
It's a very different kind of grief, I think, mixed with anger.
After 5 years now on my own, I have learned to overcome the anger and am coping most of the time, interspersed with some bad days still.

Spindrift Tue 13-Aug-13 00:07:24

My hubby was never a touchy/feely sort of man LindyLoo, but I knew he loved me, he showed it in various different ways, the same as I knew he knew he wasn't coming out of that hospital, he told me he loved me, a thing he would never usually do, the way he was brought up, it wasn't the done thing to show your emotions, he used to get embarrassed if I said I loved him or tried to give him a hug, yet the last few days he seemed to like that. That was the first feeling I got, my world has ended, yes it has ended the way it was, but we have to try to carve out a new world for ourselves our OHs would want that, it's hard & never the same as it was before we lost them, but life has to go on

Aka Sun 28-Jul-13 14:06:00

To all those who have lost someone they love, or are slowly losing that person I send a big ((((hug)))). I wish I could do more, but your stories have moved me to great sadness and the stirred the memory of my own unbearable loss sad flowers

Galen Sun 28-Jul-13 13:01:28

flowers I think the waiting for the inevitable is the worst bit. I know how you feel. My sympathies and prayers.

seasider Sun 28-Jul-13 12:22:46

Hi Sewsilver Hope you have lots of support. Thinking of youflowers